National Guards Called in To Keep The Peace in Baltimore, Maryland

 

 

National Guardsmen took up positions across the city and hundreds of volunteers began sweeping the streets of broken glass and other debris Tuesday, the morning after riots erupted following the funeral of a black man who died in police custody.

The streets were calm in the morning, but authorities remained on edge against the possibility of another outbreak of looting and arson.

The city was under a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew, all public schools were closed, and the Baltimore Orioles canceled their Tuesday night game at Camden Yards. National Guardsmen in helmets with face shields surrounded City Hall, standing behind bicycle-rack barriers.

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"We're not going to have another repeat of what happened last night," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan vowed after a visit to a West Baltimore neighborhood where cars were burned and windows smashed. "We're going to make sure we get Baltimore back on track." 

Hogan said there are "a couple of thousand" National Guardsmen and police officers in Baltimore, with more on the way.

It was the first time the National Guard was called out to quell unrest in Baltimore since 1968, when some of the same neighborhoods burned for days after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

At the White House, President Barack Obama called the deaths of several black men at the hands of police "a slow rolling crisis." But he added that there was "no excuse" for the violence in Baltimore, and said the looters were stealing, not protesting, and should be treated as criminals.

As firefighters doused smoldering fires Tuesday, many lamented the damage done by the rioters to their own neighborhoods.

Hundreds of volunteers helped shopkeepers clean up as helmeted officers blocked a stretch of North Avenue in the neighborhood where Freddie Gray, 25, was arrested earlier in this month in a case that has become the latest flashpoint in the national debate over the police use of deadly force against black men.

Hardware stores donated trash bags and brooms, and city workers brought in trucks to haul away mounds of trash and broken glass.

With schools closed, Blanca Tapahuasco brought her three sons, ages 2 to 8, from another part of the city to help sweep the brick-and-pavement courtyard outside a looted CVS pharmacy.

"We're helping the neighborhood build back up," she said. "This is an encouragement to them to know the rest of the city is not just looking on and wondering what to do."

 

 

A looted wig shop

 

 

Credit:Reuters